Preaching is the proclamation of the word of God to men by men under assignment from God. It is the ordained means for the transmission of the word of God to a lost world; it serves also as an official means of grace for the building up and strengthening of the church of Christ....Preaching is essential, a sine qua non for the church; without it the people of God will languish. Where true biblical, systematic and expository preaching is present the church will thrive.

Paul Mizzi

Some preachers, it is true, seek a mode of preaching that avoids any exercise of power, or any exalted theological claims for the content of the sermon. In sermons like these, the preacher comes not proclaiming, declaring, exhorting and rebuking, but sharing, musing, reflecting and imagining. The main problem with preaching in this 'weak' style is that it is not weak for any of the same reasons that the apostle Paul judged his own preaching to be weak. - Timothy Ward, Words of Life, page 157

The work of the Spirit, then, is joined to the word of God. But a distinction is made, that we may know that the external word is of no avail by itself. unless animated by the power of the Spirit ...All power of action, then, resides in the Spirit himself. John Calvin